Redefining the CFO Role Around Customer-Centric Finance

Discussion with Mathias Kedl

After more than 20 years working across banking, hospitality, and real estate, Mathias Kedl has seen firsthand how the CFO role is shifting, from managing numbers to driving innovation as a true strategic partner. Currently serving as CFO and Prokurist at Projekt Wohnen, a real estate development firm in Austria, Kedl brings a rare blend of operational rigor, customer empathy, and academic curiosity to the executive table. In this article, Kedl breaks down how CFOs can align financial leadership with long-term customer trust, sustainable innovation, and experience-driven growth. 

Financial Strategy Rooted in Customer Lifetime Value

For Kedl, long-term value begins not with cost calculations, but with customer relationships. “Every investment in our company begins with a Customer Lifetime Value”, he states. It’s a radical reordering of financial priorities: return on relationships takes precedence over return on capital. “A project which is in economics rely on off margin but doesn't raise aggregate CLF doesn't pass or fit our investment strategy”. If a deal doesn’t strengthen the lifetime bond with the customer, it isn’t worth pursuing.

This philosophy is operationalized through performance metrics that reward loyalty, not just sales. Up to 40% of variable compensation for commercial and sales teams is tied to indicators like tenant retention, vacancy rates, and even Google review deltas. “The fastest route to take a bonus is to delight repeat customers”, Kedl says. 

These metrics aren’t just markers of satisfaction, they’re leading indicators of future growth. “Our top priority or focus must be on sustainable work with our customers and how we can make a better situation for them”, he concludes.

The CFO as Architect of Experience and Innovation

At Reiters Resort, he brought this philosophy to life by creating a guest journey P&L, where each interaction, from booking to post-checkout, was budgeted and benchmarked like a revenue-generating asset. “I personally experienced guest satisfaction at a total number of events firsthand”, he recalls.

Kedl even established a dedicated Wow Capital fund, reserving 2% of RevPAR to surprise loyal guests with memorable touches. “We matched metrics like F&B, occupancy with the wow effect to show our team experiences our economics”, he describes. 

By contrast, his move into proptech and fintech challenged him to think digitally, and sometimes impersonally. “In prop tech, we designed the digital journey that creates satisfaction. I never had contact with any customers. I missed it a little bit because I'm highly motivated in socializing conversations”, Kedl annotates.

At Projekt Wohnen, Kedl blends human-centric hospitality with data-driven design to rethink real estate development. His venture-style model relies on fast test-and-learn cycles, balancing financial return with customer analytics and sustainability. “I monitor usage analytics, NPS and energy intensity together because a building that guests love and they will live in it but that wastes resources is not sustainable for investors or business angels”, he explains. 

For Kedl, this mindset now shapes his approach to real estate, where he weighs emotional impact, environmental care, and financial return together. “Finance is no longer the after act scorekeeper but a designer of product experiences”, he notes; insisting that user satisfaction and ecological stewardship must be equally weighted on every spreadsheet. 

Financial Metrics That Reflect Long-Term Value

Kedl believes that the most insightful financial metrics go beyond revenue. At Projekt Wohnen, he uses three core indicators to assess the strength of customer relationships: vacancy rate, CLV, and NPS-cash collection correl

The internal benchmark for vacancy across their 600+ residential and commercial units is 5%, but thanks to a clever “rent-for-renter” program, it often stays closer to 3%. “When a tenant moves out, they can refer the next renter and receive a discount”, he explains. “It keeps turnover low and costs down”.

CLV is used not just for forecasting, but for unit-level budgeting. “We can compare each flat based on how much revenue and loyalty it drives”, Kedl says. Finally, the connection between NPS and payment timing is closely monitored. “Happy tenants pay faster. It’s a simple truth, but a powerful one”.

Aligning Metrics Across Departments for Sustainable Growth

Even the best customer strategies fail when teams pull in different directions. One key blocker, Kedl says, is misaligned KPIs. “Finances pushes for net operating income, for example, uplifting that operations J is for occupancy, for example, and marketing boosts only for clicks”, Kedl describes. With each team optimizing for different outcomes, companies breed internal competition rather than cohesion. “Without an un-identifying CLV framework, these metrics cannibalize each other”, he notes.

To create alignment, Kedl installs CLV not as a metric, but as a mindset. It becomes the common denominator for success across business functions, tying performance to enduring value rather than departmental targets. But alignment isn’t possible without visibility. “Finance cannot quantify why a sale dies after a first lease cycle”, he points out. Without a clear, shared view of CLV, financial decisions risk being reactive, not strategic.

Kedl urges CFOs to move from lagging indicators to leading insight. “The more data you have from the customers, the more you can understand how they react”, he adds “and if you have no data, you cannot decide if it's a good sale or a bad sale”. For him, that shift demands connected systems, shared goals, and a fresh look at which numbers really count.

Balancing Short-Term Targets and Long-Term Brand Equity

Balancing short-term results with long-term brand value isn’t optional, it’s essential. His team uses a dual-horizon dashboard, tracking monthly “net NOI, loan convenience, liquidity”, with brand and stakeholder indicators like annual equity scores. By doing so, they stay agile while building a foundation of trust. “I think the ESG performance for every company will be a game changer in the next couple of years in real estate”, Kedl notes, framing sustainability not as a compliance box but a valuation lever.

Metrics only matter if they’re tied to real experiences. Kedl puts long-term thinking into practice with tools like KI voice, a 24/7 AI voice assistant that handles renter issues across channels. “She can solve almost every problem our renter can have”, he says. But it’s not just about efficiency, KI voice is backed by empathetic, multilingual teams, showing that tech works best when it amplifies human connection.

Transparency ties it all together. In Kedl’s buildings, key metrics like response times and satisfaction scores are posted for everyone to see.“We built that up really easy”, he adds “and hang it out there for all our customers”. This openness builds more than trust, it turns customer experience into a signal of credibility for investors and partners.

This approach makes finance a driver of credibility. By tightening the link between brand perception and business value, it speeds up deals, strengthens alignment, and supports steady growth. For Kedl, the future of finance isn’t about more models, it’s about embedding trust into every part of the operation.

The CFO as Guardian of Trust

Kedl’s closing advice is deceptively simple: “Evolve from guardian of cost to a guardian of trust”. It marks a deeper shift in the CFO’s role—cost control still matters, but it’s no longer enough. "The most valuable resource today is the customer", he says. In an era where reputation moves faster than results, trust is now the currency that sustains growth.

Kedl urges CFOs to rethink value, not just in terms of returns, but the experiences and relationships that drive them. That means investing in what truly matters to customers: responsiveness, consistency, empathy, and relevance. His leadership approach is grounded in curiosity and adaptability. “Forward-looking, real-time insight and cross-functional collaboration enable faster, smarter decisions in a volatile business environment”, he explains.

Executive Takeaways

1. Customer goodwill is a strategic asset: Relationships aren't just a byproduct of good business—they're its foundation. Retention, reputation, and revenue all stem from one principle: earn trust early, and compound it through every customer touchpoint.
2. The CFO is now a transformation partner: No longer confined to compliance and cost control, today's CFOs must be champions of innovation. They orchestrate cross-functional alignment, steer customer-centric initiatives, and help embed agility into the company’s DNA. As Kedl says, “The CFO role is expanding. Today the CFO is not just managing costs but actively allocating capital, talent and technology to support transformation, innovation and customer outcomes”.‍
3. Data-driven agility beats static planning: In fast-moving markets, outdated reports and siloed KPIs become liabilities. Behavioral data, real-time insights, and flexible planning tools enable CFOs to make timely decisions, measure what truly matters, and pivot with precision when customer expectations shift.